Muslims made a blunder by supporting Akhilesh: BSP chief Mayawati

With just one seat in her kitty, BSP chief says a three-way battle could have changed the poll outcome

Bahujan Samaj party president Mayawati has blamed her party’s all-time low tally of one seat in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on the transfer of “trusted” Muslim votes to the Samajwadi Party and “casteist” forces. She said a three-way battle could have changed the poll outcome.

Making her first appearance in Lucknow on Friday after the annihilation of what was once known as the biggest pro-Dalit political party, which also made its imprint nationally if not winning good numbers but by splitting votes, Mayawati tried to boost the sagging morale of the party workers. “Don’t get demoralised. We must try to return to power again,” she said at a media conference.

She said even the BJP had to struggle for a long time in UP before its 2017 election victory, and the once powerful Congress was in a bad shape. She wanted party workers to understand what she called the real reasons for the defeat and learn from them to better the performance to come back to power in the future for ensuring welfare of the poor, helpless, unhappy, weak and oppressed.

‘Muslims forgot Bengal’

She said the West Bengal model of Dalit-Muslim unity beat the BJP, giving an edge to Mamata Banerjee. “UP could have witnessed the same effect. People forgot that only BSP can stop BJP and not Samajwadi Party. Three-way battle could have changed the results. Muslims were seen with BSP but their entire vote shifted to SP. This wrong decision resulted in a big loss for us. Muslims have made a blunder by trusting SP instead of BSP.”

Muslim community’s share in UP’s population is 19.25 per cent. As the Congress’s Muslim base started eroding, thanks to the SP and BSP, the community became even more relevant in UP’s politics. However, this time around, the community did not fall for the likes of AIMIM, which together with BSP, was called the BJP’s B-team. Contrary to Mayawati’s remark, the Muslims have increased their representation in the Assembly. There were 24 Muslim MLAs in 2017. This time, 33 have won mostly on the SP ticket, but the strength is far below the 2012’s 68.

Mayawati blamed false propaganda as well. “They lied that we were not contesting elections as strongly as the SP. The BSP has always fought the BJP on political as well as ideological terms. This propaganda denied us the anti-BJP Hindu votes,” she reasoned.

Fading out

The BSP’s 12.88 per cent vote share is a little higher than its performance of 1993. The reduction in BSP’s vote share has added to the SP’s vote share, taking it to 32.05 per cent from 21.82 per cent five years ago. However, its highest-ever vote share did not convert into more seats for the SP. The same thing happened with the BJP as it reduced the number of seats despite gaining more in vote share.

BSP started its electoral franchise in 1989 with 9.41 per cent share and achieved the highest of 30.43 per cent in 2007. The surge helped Mayawati rule the state in coalition with the BJP and as the single-largest party. This year, it contested all 403 seats and fielded 88 Muslim and 84 Dalit candidates. The party tried to woo the upper caste Brahmins, but didn’t benefit at all. Samajwadi’s MY (Muslim and Yadav) worked in some places, thought it could not match the BJP’s MY (Modi and Yogi).

12.88%
BSP’s vote share in UP polls

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